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	August 07, 2000

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Money for the Boys
A list of private producers contracted for DD's news programmes was released in Parliament by I&B Minister Arun Jaitley. Is there a message in it? Producer No. 1 is ex-Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad boy Rajat Sharma's firm which continues to get Rs 55 lakh a month while other producers' payments were cut. Contrary to what Jaitley said, Sharma does not anchor Seven to Nine (DD3). He's away in Alaska and could not be contacted.

Anuradha Prasad, wife of MP Rajiv Shukla whose B.A.G. Films gets Rs 22 lakh a month, lashes out at critics: "Our organisation is good. The fact that we know people in power is no reason to disbar us." And Jaitley was wrong. She is not The Anchor of Rozana on dd News. "I anchor off and on," she says.Others: TWI (Rs 36 lakh a month), ANI, River Bank Studio, Shelly Suman Productions, Teamwork Films, IMAK, Saeed Naqvi's World Report (Rs 10 lakh a month). Says MP Kuldip Nayyar whose query led to the list: "I wanted to know who gets what and how they're selected. It should not be discretionary." Well Mr Jaitley, is it?

Abhinav Bindra Bull's Eye
He's 17 years and four months old. But at Sydney 2000, Chandigarh boy Abhinav Bindra will be the baby of the shooting range, the youngest of the 387 aiming for the bull's eye. The teenager shot into prominence this June when he equalled the air rifle world record at the Munich World Cup. Score: 596/600. The performance earned him a wild card entry into this Olympics. "I'm building up form for my best. I'll fight hard for the top slot," he promises, as he spends 10 hours daily practising in his backyard. From the backyard to the front pages, that kind of sums up his goals.

Shyamal Kanti Chakraborthy Gift gallery
No space in your cupboard for a family heirloom? Calcutta's India Museum may want it. Last week they got a 250-year-old, red-and-gold-spun Banarasi sari, once the property of the queen of Taherpur, now in Bangladesh. It was gifted to the museum by her descendants living in Calcutta on the same day as a century-old statue of Vishnu (also from Bangladesh) that belonged to the Telirbagh zamindari family. Says museum director Shyamal Kanti Chakraborty: "Now more and more families want us to accept and preserve their heirlooms." Those old, dusty trunks just won't do.

They Got it
They're quiet workers. that's why when Aruna Roy and Jockin Arputham were named winners of this year's Magsaysay Award, most people had this reaction: Aruna who? Jockin what? Roy immediately donated the -- 50,000 (Rs 35 lakh) that comes with the prize. And carpenter-turned-social-worker Arputham, who runs the Indian National Slum Dwellers' Federation in Mumbai, grinned mischievously as he said: "It's not like Yukta Mookhey or Lara Dutta, you know. No one asks for my autograph. But the feeling of being awarded is great and I owe it to the people around me." And yourself, sir?

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